Summer

After three weeks of heat and humidity in the south, rain. 

I got bitten by a tick on one of many hikes and had to go on an antibiotic, which has disrupted my gut biome. But I feel okay. 

Daughter is swimming well, placing second in breast stroke. 

Son is learning to ride a bike, play tennis. 

If you have children, I recommend sports, physicality, hiking, books, drawing. I recommend art and sports. I recommend working on both body and mind. I recommend a sense of discipline within playfulness.

Emily and I have been hiking, playing tennis, reading, watching Copa, awaiting Wimbledon. Healthy and tan and inside of green summer. 

I began a new book, a new novel. I'm enjoying its form, its attention to thought and physical action, on a small scale. 

Gave a talk at the local Temple on Dogen's Mountains and Waters Sutra: "Mountains do not lack the qualities of mountains. Therefore, they always abide in ease and always walk. You should examine in detail this quality of mountains walking. Mountains' walking is just like human walking. Accordingly, do not doubt mountains' walking even though it doesn't look like human walking."

Abiding in ease is walking. Walking is living in impermanence. Realizing impermanence, abiding there in ease, is to realize permanence, what is permanent. When you hike a mountain, do you hike up it, or does it walk you up? Do you think you're so different from a mountain? Mountains walk just as humans walk, and this is called "being on the path." Being on the path means being within the reality of impermanence. Sitting zazen, we walk the path. Standing still, a mountain walks. We should be grateful for this impermanence, because it is what allows us to grow, to see and learn from our delusions, to see each other growing, to see our separateness as also togetherness, together in the mountains, upon which we are walking, and which are walking us.